Earth Island News

At the recent World Sustainability Hearing in Johannesburg, South
Africa, regular civilians and civic leaders from around the globe
warned of stalled progress toward the sustainable society envisioned at
the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Running parallel to the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD), August 26-31, 2002, the Hearing took testimony from
over 100 grassroots witnesses and eminent panelists from more than 40
countries, including 12 Goldman Environmental Prize winners, climate
change expert Dr. Robert Watson, Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Vandana Shiva
and many others.

Six days of hearings were held on such critical global issues as energy
and climate justice, forest stewardship, ocean and waterway protection,
sustainable agriculture, water, hunger, poverty, the roles of women and
youth in development, and democratic governance in a
corporate-dominated economy. Here are some highlights:

Global warming is here now

The effects of climate change are being felt now, as rising sea levels
and intensified storm activity pose continuing threats to island
nations and coastal communities, participants said. Dr. Robert Watson,
former chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
declared that "climate change is absolutely inevitable," but insisted
that cost-effective means exist to address it, if political will can be
generated.

In stark contrast to the Rio summit, which produced four
legally-binding conventions, the WSSD produced no such agreements,
noted Greenpeace's Matthew Gianni. Bobby Peek of GroundWork, South
Africa, explained this was because governments were under intense
pressure from big business to push for voluntary, non-binding
agreements, which he described as "negotiated non-compliance."

Still, alternative energy paths are available. According to Chris
Flavin, president of WorldWatch Institute, switching to a renewable
energy system would provide a tremendous opportunity to reduce
pollution and improve local health while creating millions of jobs in
developing countries.

Tree farms are not forests

Hearing participants expressed grave concern over threats to forest
biodiversity from industrial tree plantations. Speakers noted that
forest products companies are not being held accountable for their
impacts on indigenous people and others who depend on the many
ecological services of intact forests.

Ricardo Carrere of the World Rainforest Movement explained that a
forest is not merely the sum of its board feet, it is the "entire
ecosystem on the land." By that definition, he said, a "tree plantation
is a dead forest that kills everything."

Indeed, the rapid expansion of industrial tree plantations is
threatening the livelihoods of forest-dependent people. Panamanian
indigenous leader Onel Arias related this conflict through the story of
a Kuna leader, who was asked, "Why do you insist on conserving your
forests?" He responded, "How can you ask me to destroy my house, my
supermarket, my pharmacy?"

As a solution to such dilemmas, Dr. Jane Goodall said people must be
provided with opportunities to take personal care of the forests where
they live. She said her institute is becoming increasingly involved
with different indigenous groups in Ecuador to set up a Forest Academy,
where people will study, practice, and teach local knowledge of plants,
environmental processes, and sustainable resource use.

Impacted waters, declining fisheries

Ten years after Rio, oceans, seas, and river basins continue to be
severely exploited and polluted due to prevailing economic interests,
said Jorge Varela of the Committee for the Defense and Development of
Flora and Fauna of the Gulf of Fonseca, Honduras.

Moreover, small fishers are being left out of policy-making processes,
which are increasingly dominated by corporate interests, said Andrew
Johnson of the South African chapter of the World Forum of Fisher
Peoples. "Governments use conservation to justify getting us out of the
way, and only support big business, which inflates the numbers of its
catches to justify their own ends, yet we fisher people know very well
the catches are getting smaller," he said.

Poverty and environment are related

According to Hearing participants, poverty reduction and environmental
protection are critically related. Jonathan Lash, president of the
US-based World Resources Institute, says the world's poor are most
affected by environmental pollution and injustices.

"Four out of ten people are already subject to water scarcity; there
are widespread problems separating sewage from drinking water; 2.2
billion have no adequate access to sanitation; and climate change is
disrupting water cycles, changing agricultural growing periods and
boundaries," said Lash.

June Zeitlin, executive director of the Women's Environment and
Development Organization, agreed, noting that poverty is exacting a
heavy price on women. Despite some progress since Rio, "women are still
at the bottom of the economic ladder," she said. "And the gender gap,
along with the wealth gap, is still widening."

To address such challenges, Bremley Lyngdoh, co-founder of India's
Global Youth Action Network, also stressed that sustainable development
efforts must include the energy and participation of young people.

The limits of industrial agriculture

In the face of increasing corporate rule over agriculture, presenters
argued that farmers must have greater control over seeds, agricultural
markets, and product development so that communities can better achieve
food security and protect biodiversity.

Dr. Vandana Shiva, founder of India's Research Foundation for Science,
Technology, and Ecology, cautioned that replacing farm labor with
high-tech methods only increases the use of energy, fossil fuels, and
chemicals. This in turn forces small farmers to go hungry, as they
cannot compete with the many advantages and subsidies given to
corporate producers, she said.

Resistance to the corporate model is taking root. Frances Moore Lapp$B!&(B author of Hope's Edge and Diet for a Small Planet,
recounted the success of the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, which
recently declared good food a right of citizenship. "This commitment
unleashed all kinds of social innovations and unforeseen
collaborations: plots of city land were made available for growing food
with the condition that produce prices must be kept within reach of the
poorest," she said.

Corporate rule vs. democracy

In order for grassroots solutions to gain the prominence they deserve
in policy debates over sustainable development, participants argued
that UN processes must become freed of the overwhelming influence of
large corporations and global trade and investment institutions.

According to Hilary French, director of WorldWatch Institute's Global
Governance Project, "[T]he forces of globalization unleashed in the
last decade are one of the major transformations since the Rio Summit."
Some recent World Trade Organization agreements, which unlike most
environmental treaties have binding mechanisms for enforcement,
directly cancel out environmental rules, she said.

Joan Russow, former head of Canada's Green Party, urged people to
challenge corporate control over our democracy. "There has to be a
network where civil society in each country knows what the corporations
are doing around the world," she said. "We also need to call for the
prohibition of corporate money in the functioning of our democracies."

Throughout the proceedings, official UN declarations were viewed with
great skepticism, given that they seemed to reflect the priorities of
narrow private interests to the exclusion of the general public.

If the UN is to regain the legitimacy it has lost since Rio,
participants argued that the world body urgently needs to implement
enforceable agreements that ensure universal human rights,
comprehensive environmental and resource protection, and binding
corporate accountability.

Aaron G. Lehmer is director and James L. Phelan is program
coordinator of Grassroots Globalization Network, which helped
coordinate the World Sustainability Hearing. To contact GGN, call (415)
788-3666 ext. 162 or visit www.earthisland.org/ggn